There's so much more to come, says record-smashing Adeleke

Ireland 400m record holder Rhasidat Adeleke has warned her rivals that she is only getting starting in the event, as she continues to set new standards each time she takes to the track.

The 20-year-old Irish woman has been breaking both the indoor and outdoor national records with regularity, her latest landmark run coming as she won the NCAA Big 12 Conference final in Lubbock, Texas in a time of 50.33 seconds last weekend.

Representing the University of Texas, where she studies corporate communications, Adeleke passed through 200 metres of the indoor track in a 23.62 seconds before powering on to and set a new NCAA record.

Adeleke's performances are all the more impressive when you consider that she has only been properly competing at the 400m distance since October.

Under the tutelage of coach Edrick Floréal, Adeleke has switched her focus from the 60m and 200m distances and while she admits that she’s still learning to run at 400m, she is excited by just how she could go in the event.

"I definitely feel like I still have a long way to in it," she said. "I’m still learning about the training and competition side of things.

"I was saying to my team-mates yesterday, they were telling me how they feel after running a 400m and they were saying 'oh yeah after running the 400m I can’t walk, I’m so tired’, and I was saying to them I never feel like that.

"Maybe that comes down to me not knowing my limits yet. Most people who have been running the event for years, they know what their pace is, they can strategise and say; ‘ok If I go out this fast, I’ll able to finish up this fast because this is usually how fast I finish’.

"I’m still not familiar with what my limits are so I might go out a little bit slow, I might go out a bit slower